Lindenwood Falls to the GauchosBox Score
Feb. 9, 2008
 Santa Barbara, CA - UCSB hosted 16th ranked Lindenwood University in the Gauchos home opener at the UCSB Lacrosse Field (aka the Pit). A new permanent scoreboard stood tall over the field but with the electrical connection to be made next week UCSB lit up a portable electric score board on the sideline instead. The Gauchos took the Lions apart on the way to a 19-9 victory in a non-league game. Lindenwood was fresh off a 9-8 upset at 6th ranked UCLA on Friday night. Third ranked UCSB started slow and when the Gauchos were called for a foul inside the scoring area it gave the Lions a free position shot in the first two minutes of the game. Freshman Lacey Vatland (Vero Beach, FL) put in an outside shot top shelf to give Lindenwood a 1-0 lead. It was to be the only lead of the game for the Lions but it was not easy for UCSB despite the final score and the run the Gauchos made following Vatland's goal.
UCSB sophomore Maggie Aker (Oakland, CA) fed freshman Ashley Antoon-Algieri (San Ramon, CA) on a fastbreak goal and the Gauchos tied it 4:37 into the game. Less than 3 minutes later junior Katie Moran (San Rafael, CA) scored on a wrap around from behind the cage for a solo goal and UCSB started a run in earnest. Five unanswered goals followed to make it a 7-0 run over a span of 13 minutes. A helper from sophomore Samantha Lutz (San Diego, CA) gave Alyssa Nelsen (Denver, CO) the ball in front of the goal and the freshman buried it to cap off the run. During that spree six different Gauchos scored goals and five goals were assisted.
"That seems to be our M.O. this year," said head coach Paul Ramsey after the game. "We're sharing the ball all over the field."
Over the course of the game ten different Gauchos scored goals against Lindenwood and another two players contributed assists. UCSB put in 13 assisted goals for an eye-popping 68.4% assist ratio. Insiders say it's not by accident that the UCSB players look for teammates when it's time to score.
"We've been emphasizing it almost from day one in Fall Ball," said Ramsey. " We want to give the ball to our teammates."
Lindenwood fought back to end the half outscoring the Gauchos 3-2 in the final 5 minutes. The third goal in that batch came on a free position shot by senior Kandee Schroeder (Baltimore MD) with 23 seconds left in the first half. Lindenwood won the draw and advanced on offense but a double team and take-away by Nelsen and senior Kristyn Gherardi (San Mateo, CA) along with two quick passes gave senior Emily Ruby (Davis, CA) the ball on the way to goal. Forced wide and facing a poor angle shot Ruby took it behind the goal and fed back over her shoulder to Aker who buried it as the horn sounded. It seemed to go in before the horn but the goal was waived off by the officials. It was a crowd pleasing sequence nonetheless.
Lindenwood scored the first goal of the second half on a free position shot by sophomore Laura Boland (Fenton, MO) and it seemed like the Lions might have some momentum with the score 9-5 and 3 of the last 4 goals belong to them. Any momentum was squelched when Ruby found Aker open again on an instant replay sequence that looked remarkably like the not-quite-buzzer-beater that ended the first half. This time it counted to put UCSB up 10-5 5:04 into the second stanza. Ruby scored a goal on her own 34 seconds later and the Gauchos seemed poised to go on another run. It was interrupted when Lindenwood senior Jackie Noble (Oakville, Ontario, Canada) scored unassisted. Even though UCSB had plenty of offensive answers whenever Lindenwood scored the Lions just would not go away. With 4:42 remaining the lefty Boland scored her third goal of the game and Lindenwood closed the gap to 14-8. Ramsey called a timeout.
 "We could have won the game without that timeout," commented Ramsey. "But they were creeping back into it and I wanted us to end with a statement."
Ramsey challenged UCSB to win the ball on the draw and score five goals in the last 4:42. Lindenwood had won the draw control battle to that point allowing the Gauchos only 9 of the 26 draws in the first 55 minutes of play.
Ramsey thought he might have set the bar too high during the timeout. Explained Ramsey, "I was hoping for us to finish the game positively and full of energy. Really, I didn't want us to relax and let Lindenwood have any more success coming back on us. However, I walked away wondering what I would say after the game if we didn't get five goals in four minutes."
It turned out nothing more needed saying. UCSB responded to the challenge. In a flurry of hustle and enthusiasm the Gauchos scored five goals coming out of the time out. The first three goals of that run came inside one minute of elapsed game time with Aker scoring solo at 4:30 remaining, Ruby feeding senior Kristen Dickey (Davis, CA) at 4:09 and Antoon-Algieri taking a break away off the draw and finishing it for her fourth goal of the game at 3:53. The next one didn't take much longer with junior Kelsey Seitz (San Diego, CA) feeding from the wing to junior Megan Puckett (Poway, CA) at 3:22 left. The final UCSB marker was Seitz on the receiving end of another entry pass but then wheeling and dealing around her defender to turn the feed into an unassisted goal with 50 seconds remaining. It was 19-8 and UCSB had made their statement. Even then the Lions didn't go away. Schroeder scored for Lindenwood with 13 seconds left to provide the final 19-9 score.
Junior Selina Eadie (Davis, CA) led the UCSB defense with 6 ground balls and a caused turnover. Freshman Diane Clow (Poway, CA) had five saves to record the win in goal.
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